Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-10-21
The PEACEMAkER.
ssRx
Description of the Most Successful SUB
marine Boat Ever Constructed.

Description of the Most Successful Sub
marine Boat Ever Constructed.
The American boat Peacemaker has.
lowever, created the greatest sensation
in the nautical world. Like most of hei
kind, she is cigar-shaped, with thinned
ends, and when seen floating on the
surface of the ocean. somewhat re.
sembles capsized yacht. She is thirty
feet long. eight feet beam and seven
feet six inches depth of hold; and has a
shell-plating seven-eighths of an inch
thick, well stiffened. so rs to withstand
the greatest probable pressure of water.
Her crew consists of a helmsman and
an engineer, who obtain admission into
the hold by small manhole, which is
then closed with closely fitting lid. A
dome projecting from the upper sur
face of the hull is fitted with glass
windows, to enable the helmsman. who
stands with his head in this raised
space, to make good the course when
the vessel is not submerged. These
feeble parts are protected from injury
by a kind of crest, which runs fore
and aft. thus giving her the peculiar
appearance to which we have previously
referred. Some sleeves, fashioned from
impermeable material, are fixed behind
and on each side of the dome, so that
the helmsman may readily apply the
torpedoes at the most opportune mo-
ment by inserting his hands into the
sleeves. Compressed air is stored up
in tubes fixed to her sides; and 1t is pro-
posed to absorb the carbonic acid and
all other deleterious products of com
bustion by chemical means. She is Iii
up by electricity and propelled by a
steam-engine of fourteen horsepower,
having its boiler surrounded by an iron
jacket, like one iron pot inside OF an
other, inclosing between it and the
boiler saturated solution of caustiC
soda. which possesses great heating
power when water-vapor is passed into
it. The funicular railways of America
avail themselves of the same method
and thus avoid smoke and dirt. In
stead of permitting the seam to ESCAPE
into the atmosphere, it is condensed
inside the jacket containing the caus
tic soda. The latent heat of thu
steam is set free by condensa
ton, and adds itself to the hea
of the dissolution OF caustic soda II
water. This system may be compared
10 q boiler in which the caustic sod;
replaces the combustible, and tb,
vapor performs the part of the Oxygen
Of the air which feeds the furnaces
When it is wished to get under way
the boiler is first filled with wate
heated to the boiling-point, and thu
soda solution is put inside the JACKIE
at ii Temperature of about two hundred
and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Th
result of recent trial trip was yer,
satisfactory, for she is said to have at
tanned n velocity of eight miles al
hour when we'll submerged, and to b
capable of retaining this rate of trave
for seve, al hours. Her submersion j
effected by filling her ballast-tanks wit
water; and she is raised by working
rudder which is movable about u horI
zontal axis. A pressure-gauge ind
Gates the depth to which the boat ha
descended, and, owing to the position {
the center of gravity, there is no tend
ency to turn turtle The torpedoe
are fastened to her sides. tied each
the other with u cord. An externs
covering of cork renders them buoy
ant; and they are furnished wit
electro magnets so that they ma
adhere to the bottom of the vessel de.
tined for destruction. The arrang,
ment is such that, when let go frol
the Peacemaker. by the helmsman il
serting his arms into the before-mei
toned impermeable sleeves. continl
Gus current circulates.
The results leave little to be desire
so far as they go; but it would be pr
mature to follow the Americans in the
exlravagant praise until further tria
have been made under varying cond
tons. Admiral Porter, of the Unite
States navy. IS firmly of the opinio
that with six such submarine boats b
could either drive off or sink any ho
tile fleet bent on attacking New Yorl
t Professor Tuck, the designer of tn
Sareastically named boat. says that b
eau construct full-sized, powerfl
, submarine steamship which shall nav
: gate the waters between Dover an
Calais without causing any of that M
, dc mer which renders the passage {
the "silvor streak so objectionable
landSmen. Probably. pleasure-seekel
or Cook tourists would prefer to SUI
, far than to risk evils which they kno
not of. -- Chambers Journal.